Kiziltepe Drilling and Business Update

14 January 2008
AIM / PLUS Markets: AAU

               KIZILTEPE DRILLING AND BUSINESS UPDATE

Ariana  Resources  plc   ("Ariana"  or  "the   Company"),  the   gold
exploration company focused  on Turkey, is  pleased to announce  that
the new drilling programme at Kiziltepe  on the Arzu South and  North
veins has commenced and is expected to be concluded by March 2008.

Highlights


  * New drilling programme underway at Kiziltepe



  * Diamond drill-rig ordered; in-house drilling team to be
    established



  * Opportunity search and new exploration underway



Drilling Programme

A 2,500m diamond drilling programme has commenced on schedule at  the
Kiziltepe prospect.    This  additional  programme  is  part  of  the
resource definition work, which began in September 2007, and  follows
on from our successful RC-drilling  programme at Kiziltepe late  last
year.  The aim of this programme is to provide greater confidence  in
the mineral resource estimate to 50m vertical depth, as this  portion
of the resource is most likely accessible by open-pit.

A summary of the main drilling intersections reported previously  for
the Arzu  South Vein  at the  Kiziltepe prospect  are listed  in  the
appendix below.

Other Activities

Ariana's operating subsidiary, Galata  Madencilik San. ve Tic.  Ltd.,
has recently concluded  an agreement to  purchase a diamond  drilling
rig for delivery to  Turkey in May 2008.   In conjunction with  this,
the Company is in  the process of establishing  its own drilling  and
geological evaluation team.   The in-house  drilling team will  allow
the Company  to  drill at  any  time of  the  year and  will  provide
increased flexibility to test new targets on Ariana's own projects or
those of potential  joint venture  partners.  The  drilling rig  will
provide pay-back within one year,  based on our planned drilling  for
2008.

Following a  complete  desk-review of  exploration  opportunities  in
Turkey, a new exploration programme is  to commence in the Spring  to
further   develop   the    pipeline   of   drill-ready    exploration
opportunities.  The new drill-rig will be utilised to  systematically
test the  existing  prospects and  any  new drill  targets  that  are
identified and secured following the desk-review.

Dr. Kerim Sener, Managing Director, commented:

"Results from previously reported  drill intersections, such as  8.9m
at 10.7  g/t and  6.6m  at 15.5  g/t  gold equivalent,  underpin  our
confidence in the  Kiziltepe vein system  to provide a  near-surface,
high-grade gold-silver resource, which may be mined by open-pit.

"The results from  the ongoing  drilling programme  at the  Kiziltepe
prospect continue  to  confirm  our  expectation  that  the  Sindirgi
Project will  yield  an  economic  gold  resource,  and  the  current
drilling programme has  been designed to  increase our confidence  in
the top 50m of  the deposit.   This data will allow  us to develop  a
robust open pit model.

"An in-house drilling team will enable us to grow the Company through
further resource definition work at  the Sindirgi Project as well  as
at other sites of interest.

"2008 promises to  be an  important year for  the Company's  progress
towards becoming a gold producer in Turkey."


Contacts:


+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Ariana Resources plc             | Tel: [phone] |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Michael Spriggs, Chairman        |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Kerim Sener, Managing Director   |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
|                                  |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Beaumont Cornish Limited         | Tel: [phone] |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Roland Cornish                   |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
|                                  |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Bankside Consultants             | Tel: [phone] |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Michael Padley / Louise Davis    |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
|                                  |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| City Capital Corporation Limited | Tel: [phone] |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Charles Dampney                  |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
|                                  |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| King & Shaxson Capital Limited   | Tel: [phone] |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Nick Bealer                      |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
|                                  |                    |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Loeb Aron & Company Limited      | Tel: [phone] |
|----------------------------------+--------------------|
| Peter Freeman / Frank Lucas      |                    |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

APPENDIX

Summary of Best Intersections

The following are a subset of best intersections (in gold equivalent)
provided by the Arzu South Vein, from north to south, 6.7m @ 7.4 g/t,
8.9m @ 10.7 g/t, 6.6m @ 15.5 g/t, 6.3m @ 8.7 g/t, 10.0m @ 6.3 g/t and
5.0m @ 20.1  g/t.  All  intersections greater than  3m in length  and
showing a gold grade greater than  2 g/t have been tabulated for  the
Arzu South Vein in Table 1 below.

The presence of  several shallow, wide  and high grade  intersections
along more than 600m of vein strike length demonstrate the  potential
for this vein to yield an open-pittable resource.  Other veins in the
vicinity of Arzu South are expected to add to the global resource  at
the Kiziltepe prospect.  Several additional veins have been tested by
diamond and RC  drilling, but it  is expected that  more drilling  is
required before these are included in a resource estimate.

Table 1: Summary of best drill hole intersections from the Arzu South
Vein (including historic data).


                           Apparent Width  Gold (Au   Silver  Au + Au
  Hole   From (m)  To (m)        (m)         g/t)    (Ag g/t) equiv.
                                                               (g/t)
                          NORTHERN SECTION
D02-06       50.00   56.00            6.00      2.77    19.94    3.16
And          63.80   68.80            5.00      2.60    80.69    4.21
KT11a        95.70  103.20            7.50      2.85    61.34    4.08
KT06         34.50   45.00           10.50      3.00    24.68    3.50
And          46.50   49.50            3.00      7.72     6.84    7.86
D03A-06      51.45   58.10            6.65      6.18    61.53    7.41
RC01-07      66.00   69.00            3.00      2.09    64.63    3.38
And          71.00   76.00            5.00      2.27    85.56    3.98
                           MIDDLE SECTION
D04A-06      42.60   49.00            6.40      5.96   155.51    9.07
And          50.00   57.20            7.20      2.52   102.88    4.57
D05A-06      47.85   51.80            3.95      8.29   182.35   11.93
KT04         67.50   71.40            3.90      2.47    56.91    3.60
RSC8         43.50   52.50            9.00      9.01   106.28   11.14
D06A-06      40.40   43.40            3.00      3.09    76.07    4.61
D07A-06      42.90   51.80            8.90      8.50   111.25   10.73
D07B-06      81.00   95.50           14.50      2.19    31.29    2.82
KT01         59.10   68.05            8.95      3.42    47.59    4.37
RSC6         27.00   34.00            7.00      9.13    72.21   10.57
D08B-06      56.00   62.60            6.60     13.06   121.67   15.49
And          72.50   78.70            6.20      5.72    83.47    7.39
KT03         76.30   89.40           13.10      5.84    70.84    7.26
RC02-07      27.00   30.00            3.00      6.15    83.43    7.82
RC03-07      27.00   31.00            4.00     10.12   131.20   12.74
KT02         61.95   67.45            5.50      6.84    93.39    8.71
D10A-06      32.60   38.90            6.30      6.52   110.95    8.74
                          SOUTHERN SECTION
RC12-07      57.00   67.00           10.00      4.72    81.01    6.34
D11-06       38.50   42.50            4.00      8.87   245.25   13.77
RC04-07      52.00   55.00            3.00      2.61    87.33    4.36
RC05-07      58.00   64.00            6.00      6.62   167.97    9.98
D12-06       59.80   64.70            4.90      7.71   124.78   10.21
RC06-07      44.00   49.00            5.00     13.62   322.06   20.06
KT10         73.80   80.90            7.10      4.77   128.78    7.34
RC15-07      88.00   94.00            6.00      3.14    66.73    4.48
Notes:
No top cut has been applied to assay results
Intersections based on a 0.5 g/t cut off grade
Weighted averages have been calculated for core recovery and
gold/silver grades
Au + Au equiv. g/t is the sum of the gold grade and the gold
equivalent grade of silver based on a gold/silver price ratio of
approximately 1:50


All samples from  the drilling programmes  undertaken by Ariana  have
been prepared by  the ALS  Chemex preparation facility  in Izmir  and
assayed by 30g fire  assay at the ALS  Chemex laboratory in  Romania.
 Routine re-assaying of all samples  assaying greater than 10 g/t  Au
and 100 g/t  Ag has  also been completed  by ALS  Chemex.   Standard,
blank and duplicate  samples are  being used in  the sample  batches,
which is  in  line with  the  Company's quality  control  procedures.
 Laboratory sample  preparation,  assaying procedures  and  chain  of
custody are  appropriately  controlled.   The  Company  maintains  an
archive of half  HQ-sized diamond  drill core and  reference RC  chip
samples, in addition to all sample pulps and splits.

Editors' note:

Dr Kerim Sener,  BSc (Hons), MSc,  PhD, is the  Managing Director  of
Ariana Resources plc. A graduate of the University of Southampton  in
Geology, he also  holds a Master's  degree from the  Royal School  of
Mines  (Imperial  College,  London)  in  Mineral  Exploration  and  a
doctorate from the University of Western  Australia.  He is a  Fellow
of The  Geological Society  of London  and has  worked in  geological
research and mineral consultancy in Southern Africa and Australia. He
has read and  approved the  technical disclosure  in this  regulatory
announcement.

About the Kiziltepe prospect

The  Kiziltepe  prospect  is  located  within  a  ten-year  renewable
operating licence  that  forms  part  of  the  Company's  100%  owned
Sindirgi gold project in Balikesir Province, western Turkey.

Kiziltepe lies  approximately 100km  east of  the one  million  ounce
vein-hosted Ovacik gold mine and 115km northwest of the five  million
ounce Kisladag  gold mine.  The prospect  hosts over  20km in  strike
length of  gold-silver  bearing  low-sulphidation  epithermal  quartz
veins across an  area of at  least 3km by  1km. Individual veins  are
exposed for up to 700m and widths  vary between 1m and 14m. The  main
veins trend northwest,  dip to  the northeast and  are hosted  within
Miocene age dacitic volcanic rocks.

Ariana  acquired  the  Sindirgi  Gold  Project  from  Newmont  Mining
Corporation (NYSE  &  ASX: NEM;  TSX:  NMC) in  March  2005.  Newmont
retains the  right  to  a  royalty  of up  to  2.5%  on  future  gold
production from the Sindirgi gold project.

Ahead of  commencing  the  drilling programme,  Ariana  obtained  all
necessary environmental and  forestry approvals  from the  provincial
government in Balikesir and the State Government in Ankara.

About Ariana Resources

Ariana is a dynamic exploration company focused on the discovery  and
development  of  epithermal  gold-silver  and  porphyry   copper-gold
deposits  with  multi-million  ounce  potential  within  the  Tethyan
metallogenic belt  of  Turkey.    The  Company  has  a  portfolio  of
prospective licences selected on the  basis of its advanced  in-house
remote sensing database.

The Company's  flagship asset  is the  Sindirgi Gold  Project,  which
targets a series of prospects, within a prolific mineralised district
in western  Turkey.   The  project  hosts over  45km  of  gold-silver
bearing epithermal quartz veins.

City Capital Corporation Limited, King & Shaxson Capital Limited  and
Loeb Aron &  Company Limited  are joint  brokers to  the Company  and
Beaumont Cornish Limited is the Company's nominated adviser.

For further  information  on Ariana  you  are invited  to  visit  the
Company's website at www.arianaresources.com.


Ends

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